NEW Police and Crime Commissioners turned up for their first day on the job yesterday, facing a punishing 10-week deadline to get their force budgets and policing plans in place.

The 41 newly-elected commissioners have until January 31 to submit multi- million-pound budget bids against a backdrop of cuts in frontline policing.

The timetable has been criticised as unrealistic for commissioners, some of whom have little or no experience of working within the police force.

On an average national turnout of just 15 per cent, the worst on record, voters sent 16 Conservative, 13 Labour and 12 independent candidates to the new job of heading 41 forces in England and Wales. The Electoral Commission has launched an inquiry into why turnout was so low.

Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper branded the night a “shambles”, blaming a lack of publicity and the decision to hold the ballot in November for the apathy which saw turnout plunge to 10 per cent in some cities – one Gwent polling station saw no voters at all.

I said at the beginning this is a Tory marginal seat. It’s not a safe Labour seat

Lord Prescott

Serving four-year terms and with a team of support staff, the total cost of the coalition’s flagship project is estimated to top half a billion pounds by 2016. With just five million people voting on Thursday that is the equivalent of £100 for each vote cast.

Matthew Grove, the Conservative candidate who beat John Prescott in Humberside, blamed the “national media” for the low turnout. He suggested the press had encouraged people to “boycott” the poll.

But, speaking after his defeat, Lord Prescott said: “I said at the beginning this is a Tory marginal seat. It’s not a safe Labour seat. It would have been nice but it wasn’t so, the people have spoken.”

Tory MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, said: “The result in Humberside shows local voters went for quality rather than quantity. The last thing people want is a failed minister running their local police.”

Ann Barnes, a former Home Office adviser and police authority chairwoman elected in Kent, believed it was anger over the low-key campaign not apathy that created a low turnout. “This election was run disgracefully. The publicity was virtually nonexistent,” she said.

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said he did not believe low turnout weakened the authority of the new commissioners.

However, he added those with enormous police force areas to cover faced a “huge challenge” and “healthy tension” with the chief constable of their force. He said: “What we will be looking forward to is working with these individuals to focus all our resources on keeping citizens safe.”